Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-SJC-2017-09-132017.09.13 APPROVED SJC minutes.doc 1 SJC MEETING September 13, 2017 SJC Members Staff Cynthia Brock, Chair Steve Thayer Supervisor Bill Goodman CJ Kilgore Supervisor Jason Leifer Erik Whitney Rich DePaolo Scott Gibson MaryAnn Sumner (Dryden Alternative) Jose Lozano Dave Warden Absent Guest Tee-Ann Hunter Brian Davis Donna Fleming Cynthia called the meeting to order at 12:33 p.m. Rich MOVED to accept the August 9th minutes. Seconded by MaryAnn. Approved 5-0. Financial Report – Steve Thayer 2017 Activity through August 31 – Revenues – reflecting a bit lower than budget at this point in time but he expects to be at budget by year end. Debt Service will be invoiced in November. Expenses – we have expended a little above budget in equipment parts 5477, treatment supplies 5495 - otherwise everything looks good. Keep in mind that all expenses do not follow the calendar. We are running a deficit of $359,000.00 and are continuing to work toward reducing our fund balance to be more in line with the agreement figure of $800,000.00 to $850,000.00. Cynthia asked where fund balance might be at year end. Steve thinks we will be close to $1,000,000.00 un-assigned Fund Balance. He added that if all goes according to budget we should be in line with the agreement. Capital Projects – 420J Feasibility Stud y - Enhanced Primary Treatment $2,500.00 in Engineering Services. 2018 Preliminary Budget Proposal – best estimate to date - there is still time to make changes. Steve is waiting for insurance numbers – both liability and worker’s compensation. Revenues – Steve is increasing trucked waste revenue by $32,000.00. 2017.09.13 APPROVED SJC minutes.doc 2 It was suggested that we might want to look at increasing the rates for trucked waste as it has been several years since our rates have been adjusted. General consensus is that we should charge market rate. CJ will reach out to neighboring facilities. He added that some waste streams are more difficult to deal with than others. Cynthia wondered if a group of college students could work on a pricing study as a project. Note: The hope was to have something in place for the 2019 budget but after further discussion of the 2018 budget it was decided to look into raising rates for the 2018 budget. Debt service reflects our increasing capital activity in the facility. We were able to lock in at lower interest rates. Expenses – Salaries - salaries as proposed by staff include contract increases. The decrease is attributed to new hires and unfunded positions. Cynthia will forward the budget detail to the members. Vehicles – the Jeep is due to be replaced – CJ is looking at a Ford Transit Connect – a utility van type vehicle with vinyl seats and vinyl floors. Contracts – Steve discussed the return to general fund decrease. We have budgeted $185,000.00 to hire a contractor to take down and clean our digester. Industry standard is to take it down and clean every 5 to 7 years - grit builds up over time. (in 2006 just under $100,000.00 in 2012 $185,000.00) – digester cleaning should be done in 2018. Bill offered that he is comfortable using some of the fund balance toward the digester cleaning. Steve is looking at a 13.5% increase in the rate – consumption is down. Steve will send out another preliminary budget by the end of September. Cynthia will forward the detailed breakdown to the members. Cynthia brought up Jose’s $80,000.00 request for funding research of emerging contaminants – a continuance of the Park Foundation Grant written with Ithaca College and the working partnership with the DOH, USGS, Cornell and IC. Bolton Point has requested to participate in the study. Jose would like to find out which of our emerging contaminants the Lystek process may be able to destroy. Rich asked if the existing data was enough of a baseline to postpone the research a year. Jose replied that although the study is not time sensitive he would prefer that it continue to show that we are making a serious commitment to this research. Rich asked what funding is being provided by the other members. DOH is providing instrumentation, Cornell is providing testing and staff, USGS is charging discounted lab rates. Cynthia said there is a desire to pursue this project but asked Jose to come back with a revised proposal with a smaller scale and a smaller budget project. Steve will look into funding using 2017 monies. Operations and Engineering Report – CJ Kilgore 1. Plant Maintenance & Operations 2017.09.13 APPROVED SJC minutes.doc 3 a. CJ met with GHD in September to finalize the proposal for grit removal, concrete repairs (both structure and tanks), and improvements to: influent screening, septage receiving and the vacuum truck dump station. Influent building – we are looking at spraying or washing equipment to capture more of the organics that are presently being removed. Septage Improvements – grease waste and very thick loads might be better dealt with the addition of heat, hot water or by manually raking. CJ hopes to be able to present a proposal next meeting. b. MRB Group – Tim Carpenter – O&M manual upgrade/update has begun. He expects to be complete within three or four months. c. Emergency Generator Proposal – we are waiting to hear back from GHD on the adequacy of our current generator due to the repair of the cooling system radiator estimated to be $45,000.00. d. DEC Hazardous Bulk Storage Inspection – we received a Notice of Violation. Scott and CJ will meet with the DEC in Syracuse on October 5th. The posting issues have been addressed. Our odor control system uses two poly totes – they are considered stationary tanks and should have been and are now registered. The condensation has been cleared out of the sump area of our petroleum tank. We are working on an inspection plan. Our replacement doors have been installed - to bring the doors to code and to restrict access of unauthorized personnel to the office area. 2. Facilities Maintenance & Operations a. Monitoring Stations – the RFP is out – we are receiving interest from various firms. Casella organized the land application site in 2015 in Homer, NY - CJ will follow up. 3. Staff Management a. Vacancy request for Operator/Trainee has been submitted to HR – it was approved yesterday (9/12/17). 4. Reporting – 5. Business, Long Term Development – Cynthia, CJ, Scott and Jose were present during the telephone conference call held September 11th with Lystek (Jim Belcastro, Ajay Singh, Mike Dougherty, Samantha Halloran) and George Bevington; Gerhardt LLC. Cynthia said that she felt that the board wanted increased biogas production in addition to a reduction of the amount of material disposed of in the landfill. The Lystek process results in a Class A biosolid - they typically store 6-9 months of material on or off site – there are different methods of storage. Lystek will attend the October meeting to discuss their budget proposal, expected increase in energy production and product storage and distribution. MaryAnn said that there should be an RFP if and when we decide to move forward. 2017.09.13 APPROVED SJC minutes.doc 4 CJ said that there will be certain performance guarantees - we will have beneficial reuse which will increase our gas production and reduce our waste disposal cost. He is curious to see the net savings. In general - it is a partnership that can be individualized to suit the needs of each organization. Dave asked about numbers from existing operations. Jose said that he thinks their process sounds promising - he is expecting them to submit data. Our objective over the years has been to decrease our residual biosolids expense. Cynthia added and Jose confirmed that Tompkins County does not allow land application of biosolids. 6. Energy Production Statistics – provided by CJ. He made some corrections to the numbers but will double check them again the August numbers appear low. CJ has been making adjustments manually to reduce the gas wasted by the flare. Our July phosphorous numbers were up but were still within permit. CJ thought it might have been a power blip – sometimes Acti-flow will go down. Discussion Items a. Research Funding Request – Jose Lozano. b. Data of Sales, Sewage, and Flows – Cynthia has compiled the data from SPDES reports. Her findings indicate that water sold makes up 55% of volume treated. She will add trucked waste data. She is compiling the data to look at the possibility of accepting an additional 1,000,000 gallons per day through the Remington intercept and 73,000,000 gallons per year through the Kline Road bypass. c. Cynthia brought to the board her thought that perhaps our effluent water may be useful as a heat pump source to our neighboring properties. Bill asked if any of the members were aware of plans for the property but no one was sure. Dave agreed that there are possibilities – he is aware of pilot studies of combined systems now. CJ thought that the in and out are within approximately 5 degrees of one another. d. Joint Sewer Agreement Group – Did not meet. Announcements / Other Business – Dave moved to adjourn. Seconded by Bill. All were in favor. Meeting was adjourned @ 2:22 p.m. The Next Meeting is October 11th, 2017, 12:30 pm.